


The Lifesigns Were Always There

by mandykaysfic



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Corny, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-15 20:54:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10557558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandykaysfic/pseuds/mandykaysfic
Summary: Over 120 episode titles were used in this fic, thereby showing Voyager was really all about Chakotay/Paris!





	

Chakotay approached the holodeck at 11.59. He was looking forward to his two-hour block with pleasure. All of his waking moments in the past few days had been given to supervising repair teams and helping out the workforce where needed after Voyager’s latest encounter with unfriendly aliens. Time and again they found themselves fighting for their lives in a battle with aliens of some dark frontier whose mentality consisted of ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ when encountering strangers. This lot had built a type of super-dreadnought, as they wanted to test the prototype of a warhead they planned to use on their neighbors. Luckily there were no deaths and he would not be required to speak at another memorial. The only crewmembers in critical care were Jetrel and Alice, and the Doctor was confident they would pull through. He sometimes wondered if there was any part in the delta quadrant macrocosm where the natives were friendly. It seemed to be just one warlord after another over the past year of hell. Even shaky alliances were few and far between. Voyager was not out to make false profits; they only wanted fair trade and safe passage. Maybe the aliens were picking up emanations of a death wish as projections from disgruntled crewmembers that attracted them to try their hand at the killing game. He put aside the disquieting thoughts and concentrated on calming his mind.

The program he’d chosen consisted of a bathhouse and he planned to soak the tiredness, aches and pains away in peace and quiet. He entered and surveyed the interior. There was a large Jacuzzi and a number of single baths ready for use. He decided to use one of the smaller baths first, wanting to get clean before taking advantage of the whirlpool. He stripped off quickly, dropping his clothes well out of reach of the water. He placed soap, shampoo and clean towels close by, and dipped a toe into the water. The temperature was fine and he stepped over the side of the tub, lowering himself into the warm liquid embrace. 

Weary muscles relaxed as the heat dissipated. Chakotay reached for the soap and contemplated his toes for a moment before beginning to wash them. Random thoughts flitted through his mind. He tried to remember what the spirit folk had told him the last time he had communed with his ancestors. It was a prophecy but all too often they spoke in riddles; that was their way. They assisted him with his learning curve - after all, things weren’t meant to be too easy in real life and experience was a great teacher. ‘I am indeed fortunate to have someone to watch over me,’ he thought to himself, proud now of his lineage, as he hadn’t been in his youth. He kneaded his calves with strong fingers and worked his way round his knees and up onto his thighs. 

Reaching one arm across his chest, he grasped the bunch of muscle along the side of his neck, feeling the knots, and moaning a little as he worked them out. This was definitely one time when he wished for company. Faces of previous and potential companions paraded before his mind’s eye. Seska. His darkling nemesis. A scorpion with a very big sting in her tail. He shivered in revulsion. Her theft of his DNA had shattered something inside of him. The fury this train of thought created increased the tension in his muscles and he consciously recalled another instead. B’Elanna. Her drive and passion had attracted him. Their relationship in the Maquis had lasted only thirty days, but what a glorious month that had been. They’d parted when they realized they made better friends than lovers. Kathryn. As he began to wash his hair, Chakotay thought of one of his firmest resolutions he’d ever made had been the one concerned with the repression of his feelings for her that had peaked on New Earth. It was an unforgettable time of his life, and once upon a time he’d thought their relationship would have been permanent, but it wasn’t to be. She was too much the good shepherd to single out just one of her flock. He was not made to be alone for the rest of his life. He was only following the natural law in wanting a companion. 

Chakotay stood and the water ran down his body back into the bath. He was ready for the whirlpool now. He stepped out and picked a one of the white towels and dried his face and hair. Leaving the towel slung over his shoulders, he stood lost in thought as another entered his mind. Tall, fair, displaced on Voyager for a while but finding unity with the crew as time passed, not a drone but always willing to take an extreme risk to help get the crew home. In the blink of an eye Chakotay’s inside man had a revelation. This one could be his future’s end, his destiny. He walked slowly over to the Jacuzzi and climbed in. An expression of bliss settled on his face. He twisted from side to side as the jets pounded into his muscles. The cloud of steam obscured his vision but the view was nothing special. He didn’t need anything to look at as he had a flashback to their first meeting. Behind his eyelids was a latent image of the pilot. The man was a virtuoso when it came to anything concerning flight. He remembered feeling the pounding of his blood, fever shaking his body and soul when he first laid eyes on the man. He’d fallen for the mercenary who’d only wanted to live fast and prosper, and when Chakotay had realized this was once Starfleet’s favorite son, who had apparently thrown away everything, he’d been consumed by a cold fire and locked his burgeoning love away in the void deep inside himself. Now the thaw had set in and Chakotay’s emotions were in a state of flux.

Hope and fear warred within Chakotay. He’d been given the gift of a taking the opportunity for a new start and he realized he would have to confront Tom Paris in the flesh – vis a vis, as it were. It was the only way to resolve the deadlock between them. Chakotay was under no illusions that this would be child’s play. He would have to expose the imperfection of his previous held notions about the man. His tattoo wrinkled as he frowned, considering the recent development of their somewhat shaky friendship; one of the most important things he now acknowledged. He lifted a hand out of the water and commenced investigations of the lines on it. His lifeline was long; a probable indication Tom wouldn’t kill him when he confessed his feelings. The non sequitur made him smile as he gave no credence to palmistry.

The Jacuzzi became Chakotay’s think tank as he pondered the best time and place to approach Tom. He decided to use his holoprogram of his home world. The sacred ground was a beautiful place at the time of the vernal equinox. He would take Tom to the forest, where a bird similar to a Terran nightingale sang hauntingly in the day rather than the night. He lest his muse overtake him – back to basics would be best. Remove the swarm of insects he’d programmed for realism. The raven would have to go as well, its cries were too harsh. It would be a fair haven and there would be nothing human to be a living witness to his declaration that Tom Paris was the caretaker of his flesh and blood as well as his soul. 

Chakotay gave a few minutes thought to the worst case scenario in which Tom turned him down, as he loved another, but his survival instinct kicked in and he allowed his hope and confidence to rise back to the fore. Now that all resistance to the idea of loving Tom Paris had gone, Chakotay’s joy had no threshold. He just needed a few little maneuvers and hopefully no human error to get Tom where he wanted him. The initiations would have to be delicately handled as it was important that Tom be able to examine Chakotay’s actions in retrospect and not see it as just an endgame of hunters and prey. These were prime factors for considering the planning with not just a little scientific method involved. For a moment Chakotay wished he had a little Vulcan telepathy and he could just meld with Tom. 

The computer’s warning that his time was up in fifteen minutes sounded and Chakotay reluctantly turned the whirlpool off. He would return to his quarters and lose himself in a timeless fantasy in which he’d won the fight for his soul mate.

Coda: Tom was sufficiently impressed with Chakotay’s repentance and admission of his knowledge of Tom’s innocence regarding the betrayal of the Maquis, and his avowal that their lives were counterpoint, that he decided to give their future a chance. Many years later, when the two men sat on the verandah of their homestead and reminisced, they would always refer to that occasion as Chakotay’s ‘Day of Honor’.

The End


End file.
